Turkey's Tupras to open London oil trading desk - sources

LONDON, July 24 (Reuters) - Refiner Tupras is expanding its trading operations beyond Turkey for the first time with plans to open a London office, according to sources and a document seen by Reuters.

The company is currently advertising for trading positions on gasoline, fuel oil and derivatives in London, an email from a recruiter seen by Reuters showed.

One trader said he had been approached for one of the roles recently.

The role that the London office will play in the company’s trading operations remains unclear, but according to the email, the Turkey offices are expected to continue handling volumes produced by its refineries.

It is also unclear when Tupras plans to open the office and how big it will be.

Tupras did not immediately respond to a request to comment.

Tupras, which for now is Turkey’s sole oil refiner, operates four plants in Izmit, Izmir, Kirikkale and Batman, with a total annual crude oil processing capacity of 28.1 million tonnes (561,000 barrels per day).

Azerbaijan’s Socar will launch a new 200,000 bpd refinery in Turkey in the last quarter of 2018.

Reporting by Julia Payne, Ron Bousso and Ahmad Ghaddar in
London and Humeyra Pamuk in Istanbul; editing by David Evans